Budget Titanium - Help

chris217

Looking a Ti frames , but cannot reach dizzy heights of £2000 + for top end frame, need some guideance.

options - Van Nicholas - Mistral / Zephyr
Litespeed - XICON
Sabbath bikes - sundays monday !!

what do people think, they sre all in similar ball park price wise however is there one that particulary stands out for anyone ?

looking really to replace a two bike stable ( one Carbon LOOK and ALU Lemond ) with do it all bike.

feedback appreciated

joeyhalloran

I have a planet X Ti, value for money it is very hard to beat! Its amazingly fun to ride.

d70ar9

I have just purchased a Planet X Ti Sportive Frame to build up - should have it finished by the end of the week. Will let you know how it rides if you are interested it looks stunning though. Also might be worth looking at the clearance deals Enigma (British Titanium company) do some v good bargains on there
http://www.enigmabikes.com/clearance2.html
http://www.enigmabikes.com/clearance_frames.html

chrishd883

Have a look at Qoroz - based in South Glos.

Not cheap - circa £1,250 for frame - had a short test ride - excellent!
Planet X frame cheaper though - £799?

tim_wand

Have a word with Fat Birds in Hunstanton (Norfolk) carry a range of Ti frames with custom build options from both Van Nicholas and Sabbath. Really nice people

pastey_boy

the lynskey built p/x frame has got to be the biggest bargain around, lynskey cooper for £999 from crc is a bargain too

Scrumple

2nd hand

been some stinking bargains recently, for silly money.

Or, get in when one of the major brands has a change of frame or revamps decals etc... or buy one of their demos... or race bikes.
Call, talk, and wheel n deal.

I have a fantastic Sabbath for a fantastic price, and would hugely recommend you call Greg and talk - if you are genuine he will do his best for you... it is coming to that time when they want to shift stock before winter.

chris217

Thanks guys and scrumple cheers for suggestions.

there are obviously deals to be had in fact there are so many its confusing which is the best.

just going back to choices, what do people think of the Litespeed XICON ? i have a local bike shop who can 'do a deal' and wondered if it is just a cheap heavy frame with a litespeed badge ??

d70ar9

Bikeradar review
http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/category/ ... n-10-39592

Scrumple

xicon - cheap??

if you can get it cheap, I want one too

chris217

Scrumple - Cheap ...well £1200 cheap....ish !!

Scrumple

I'd hang on for a full build.... you can do better

TMR

As no-one else has posted, then I'll suggest Enigma. Their Eclipse Ti frame is under £1K, so you could do a decent full new build for roughly £1500 if you shop around for parts.

nmcgann

pastey_boy wrote:

the lynskey built p/x frame has got to be the biggest bargain around, lynskey cooper for £999 from crc is a bargain too

Seconded! I've got a Ti Pro Road frame and it is very nice indeed.

joeyhalloran

I did know you had one! that makes 3 of us in the CCC :P

Stellite

I have a Prokikekit Ti frame, came with Ritchey WCS carbon forks. Had 10% off ans 15% cashback.

Love it. I have it built up with SRAM Force.

Think they might be out of stock now tho

http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/category/ ... uild-37706

father_jack

this one? I'm interested. Just got some Ventos, £600 for the frame another £500 for groupset... hmmm

http://www.probikekit.com/display.php?code=J0052

greg roche

Hi...

Shall i just butt in with a totally non bias version of events?

First, i've not ridden all the bikes mentioned, but you probably wouldn't go too far wrong with any of them. Thats the 'seems like he's not going to be bias' bit out the way.

What i would say is that all the bikes discussed offer different geometries and ride feel qualities. Besides saying you want a ti frame, you don't say what you want to use it for.

In our range, there are potentially 3 framesets you could look at:
Mondays Child (Race orientated, £1799 retail)
Silk Road Pro (Performance / stage race / Fast sportive, £1799 retail)
Silk Road Alp (Performance sportive, £1499 retail)

All made from the same material - double butted seamless 3al 2.5v ti with 6al 4v machined parts (drop outs, bb shell, integrated headtube on MC and SRP)

Ride wise, they are significantly different beasts. I love the MC, its what i ride myself, but its significantly less popular than the alp if i looked at my sales this year. So (surprise surprise) sportive stuff is flying off the shelves.

Back to non bias mode, the point is, whatever you chose, or whatever you shortlist by brand or model, make sure you test drive so you get the product thats the right quality and right type of ride for your needs.

As someone else mentioned, we're always happy to chat on about bikes in general here at Sabbath, so if you wanted some non bias advice call us. Myself, Alex or James would all be able to give you some vaguely helpful insigh5t, i'd like to think.

Thanks
Greg

calvjones

What Greg says.

Let's face it, they'll all come from the same factory anyway, so geometry, whether you want to support UK or Dutch retailers, and which sticker set looks best, is what it's all about.

d70ar9

When i was considering my Titanium purchase i contacted XACD - Porter offered me a custom Titanium frame with Titanium forks for £450. I just wasn't sure so opted for the security of the planet x frame - however i have heard good reports about the XACD frames one guy on here has a blog about his build it looked stunning see below
http://ronniethescot.blogspot.com/2007/ ... -bike.html

cougie

Yeah I keep meaning to order a XACD frame.

Chip \'oyler

A good mate has a Van Nicholas. He loves it and seems to be a very well made frame.

Steve GT

I have a Van Nicholas Zephyr as well as a Sabbath September. I
love both bikes.
I use the Zephyr in the Summer and the September, due to the frame having mudguard eyelets, in winter. Although this year, I have been riding the September quite a bit during the summer, with the mudguards removed. Both bikes are a joy to ride.
With regards to ride quality, I cannot tell any difference between them at all. I like the look of the Zephyr frame slightly more than the Sabbath due to its more polished finish. You can now buy the Sabbath with a polished finish option if you like and I think it would be a slightly cheaper option than a Van Nicholas.
If I was told that I could only keep one of them I would choose the September, as it is more versatile than the Zephyr, due to the mudguard / rack eyelets.

vorsprung

cougie wrote:

Yeah I keep meaning to order a XACD frame.

Back in 2006 I looked at XACD and went with Setavento instead. As they were a proper company and had stuff like a warrantee. Most people think that Setavento used the same places to build their frames as XACD

A few weeks ago my Setavento frame broke The warrantee was no good as Setavento had stopped trading

The crack seems to be a symptom of the way that the frame was made and designed so it may reoccur if repaired

Talking to other riders this sort of failure on 3 year+ old Ti frames is fairly common

Don't get a Titanium frame without a proper warrantee that you will be sure will be around in 5 years or so. Unless you are prepared to simply write it off and buy another one

Steve GT

Vorsprung raises a valid point.
The Van Nic frame I have was a replacement for a cracked Airborne Zeppelin that I had bought 4 years earlier. Van Nicolas honoured the Airborne warranty, to which I am very gratefull.

andybott

I have a setavento and am very pleased, I think the website is still up and someone has still the contact page up and running for warranty questions, I only know cos I wnated some new stickers a few months ago. Did not succeed with stickers unfortunatley.

Andrew

chris217

thanks again guys.

i think in summary everyone seems to have had / be having very positive experiences with Ti frames aside from Setavento perhaps, whether it is Van Nicholas, Sabbath, Lynksey etc etc.

This reassures me as i was concerned that a 'cheap' Ti frame would sacrifice performance and while the Ti connoisseur may be able to differentiate between an Archon and a Planet X, i am not sure i could.

cool so its decision time....mmmm

donerwin

The Lynskey Sportive will include rack and fender mounts and be standard short reach brake specific. Definitely should be a consideration.
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Mode ... elID=52275

Stellite

Father Jack wrote:

this one? I'm interested. Just got some Ventos, £600 for the frame another £500 for groupset... hmmm

http://www.probikekit.com/display.php?code=J0052

Aye thats the one

paul_smith_srcc

Chris217 wrote:

Looking a Ti frames , but cannot reach dizzy heights of £2000 + for top end frame, need some guideance.

options - Van Nicholas - Mistral / Zephyr.......

The Van Nicholas Mistral is a complete bike only, if it’s just a frame you need then the Mistral is a budget version of the Euros; which is available as a frame only. This is actually a little confusing to some as they actually list the Mistral as a frame only at the same price; I was told that this was because they haven’t worked out how to not list the Mistral bike not showing the price of frame option alone.

Paul_Smith
www.corridori.co.uk

solboy

You can get the Mistral frame for around £700 from Fat Birds.